USA (MNN) — College can be a turning point for young people. And while the Greek system will give them friends to support them through school, it is unlikely to help with the spiritual questions that often pop up as college students mature in their faith.
Urbana 15 (Photo courtesy InterVarsity)
Since 1994, Greek InterVarsity has hosted Greek Conferences at locations across the country to bring together fraternity and sorority students for a weekend focused on God in the Greek system.
During the 3-day conferences, participants talk about how Christians fit into their Sorority or Fraternity.
Brandt Boora is the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Associate Director of Conferencing. He says he sees many Greek students looking for answers he feels confident they could have answered at one of the conferences.
“Greek life is messy. You see on the news every year stories of parties where excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs happen, where there is sexual violence, where there is racism. The Greek system has lots of areas and issues of brokenness and injustice that we believe God wants to redeem. A part of InterVarsity’s mission within the Greek system is to see the system renewed, and the best way to do that is for a fraternity or sorority leader to begin a chapter Bible study and begin to affect change by living out the Gospel in their fraternity or sorority.”
While the conference is open to all students, the focus is on Greek life.
One student talked to Booram about how he learned at a conference to pray with focus through all the distractions of college. “Other students were trained to lead Bible studies.” After a weekend conference, a student hesitant to bring up the subject of God had the confidence to share the Gospel with others in her sorority, Booram says.
At conference seminars, students learn how to lead ministry in the Greek system. Speakers for the conference are chosen based on their knowledge or experience of the Greek system and their ability to identify with the issues, Booram explains.
While the Los Angeles conference is past, interested college students can still register for the Indianapolis conference Feb. 12-24, or the Charlotte conference Feb. 19-21.
Greek InterVarsity is a part of InterVarsity/USA — an interdenominational evangelical campus ministry whose vision is to see lives transformed, campuses renewed, and world-changers developed.
